By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
Armed with press packets and passion, 11 Seattle chapter Hadassah members from Bellingham to Vancouver showed up at the state capitol in Olympia on March 2, to persuade legislators that the need for increased stem cell research in the state is both necessary and humane.
Hadassah Organization’s nationwide, grassroots campaign, called SOS: State of Stem Cells, is the most intense and targeted political lobbying effort Hadassah has mounted in its 92-year history in America. Seattle was one of 49 member chapters in as many states around the U.S. that participated.
“We met with our individual legislators and senators,” said Elaine Mintz, volunteer chair of the SOS campaign in Seattle. “We talked to them for 15 minutes, citing our stand on it and cleared that up.”
Stem cell research, Hadassah leaders say, has given scientists and patients renewed hope that increased research with existing cell lines and the addition of new lines could potentially bring a cure for diseases like Parkinson’s Disease, heart disease, Multiple Sclerosis, ALS and cancer.
The incidence of death due to Parkinson’s disease has risen by 3.4 percent in the U.S., replacing murder among the top 15 causes of death in this country, according to a study conducted in 2003 by the World Health Organization.
At the Goldyne Savad Institute of Gene Therapy at the Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem, researchers are on the cutting edge of stem cell research. The institute currently has six stem cell lines.
Professor Benjamin Reubinoff, a lead researcher at the Institute recently published a research protocol in the journal Stem Cells indicating that laboratory rats injected with embryonic stem cells showed signs of improvement for Parkinson-like symptoms.
“I think people need to be educated on this,” said Mintz. “It’s a complicated issue.”
The cells would be taken from in vitro fertilization clinics, not from aborted fetuses, Mintz added.
In late February, Washington’s Gov. Christine Gregoire reneged on one of the central campaign promises she made to Washington voters last fall. Gregoire said she would include a state-funded stem cell research institute as part of her Life Sciences Investment proposal. However, there was no institute proposed in her $350 million Life Sciences Discovery Fund when she recently unveiled the plan. Gregoire said there just wasn’t enough money.
“We want to raise research dollars,” said Jacquie Bayley, president of Seattle Chapter Hadassah. “If it means private funds to go in concert with public funds, then that’s what it will take.”
Bayley said she fears a “brain-drain” of Washington’s best scientists to other states where substantial amounts of money have already been earmarked for stem cell research, like California and New Jersey.
“They’re already offering our scientists here to come to California,” said Bayley. “Stem cell research is the penicillin of the [21st] century. It’s got endless applications.”
In 2000, President Bush made his position on federal funding for stem cell research clear, stating that if it involves destroying living human embryos, he is opposed to it.
Then, in 2001, he decided to allow embryonic stem cell research to go forward but only on cells that already existed or existing cell lines. A “cell line” is created when an isolated stem cell replicates indefinitely.
His reasoning was that the embryo was already destroyed. Any future embryonic research funded by the government, said President Bush, would implicate the government in the destruction of embryos.
In April 2004, a bipartisan group of 206 U.S. representatives sent a letter to President Bush asking him to lift the current limits on federal embryonic stem cell research. In early June, 58 senators, including Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) sent a similar letter to the president.
Since then, he has allowed new federal funding for umbilical cord, placenta and adult stem cell research only.
For the Bush administration, stem cell research is a question of ethics. Opponents of embryonic stem cell research take the view that the embryo is a human life and that life begins when the egg is fertilized.
Those in favor of the research argue that unless an embryo is successfully implanted in a woman’s uterus, it only has the potential for life but cannot be given the status of a human being.
According to Jewish law, stem cell research is not only ethical but it is the right thing to do.
“There’s no such thing, that it’s unnatural,” said Rabbi Moshe Kletenik of Bikur Cholim Machzikay Hadath Congregation. “It is appropriate to use knowledge to alleviate suffering and improve the world.”
Kletenik is a frequent lecturer on bio-ethical issues and Jewish law, and served as the creator and program chair of the First Annual Jewish Medical Ethics Conference in Pennsylvania in 1992. Since then, he has developed the same program in Washington, acting as chair of the first three Annual Jewish Medical Ethics conferences in Seattle between 1996 and 1998.
In Jewish law, said Kletenik, there are two basic Jewish views regarding abortion, the fetus, and, ultimately, the stem cell debate. Both hold that life begins some time after a stem cell would be used for research.
“Most authorities of Jewish law maintain that Maimonides, the 12th century physician and Jewish scholar, would concede that the fetus is not a human life at least until 40 days following conception,” said Kletenik. “This is based on the Talmudic statement that prior to 40 days, the fetus is ‘mere fluid.’”
The second view, he said, is based on commentaries from Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, the 11th-century authority also known as Rashi, who did not consider a fetus to be life until there is a birth and the baby is born and breathing. It is this same Judaic perspective on the status of a fetus that allows Judaism to condone abortion when the life of the mother is at risk.
Either way, said Kletenik, stem cell research using previously harvested IVF stem cells is “legal” in terms of Jewish law.
“When it comes to practical halachah,” said Kletenik, “a cell isn’t a life until 40 days. Cells in a petri dish cannot develop further in their present state and can only be preserved by being frozen.”
Seattle Chapter Hadassah is hoping that a stem cell bill spearheaded by Rep. Shay Schual-Berke (D-33rd) that has already passed the House will now go smoothly through the Senate. Senate Bill 5594 would permit the use of human embryonic stem cell research with the full knowledge and consent of the donor. House Bill 1268 would regulate stem cell research by banning the cloning of stem cells. The mainstream view in the scientific community is in agreement with a ban on cloning.
There is no mention of funding in either piece of legislation.
“The potential for finding funds is enormous,” said Schual-Berke in an interview after briefing Hadassah members on Wednesday. “We are one of the premiere research communities in the world, but we have a $2.2 billion budget deficit that we are facing right now. That would have killed the bill.”
Schual-Berke is optimistic about the current stem cell legislation, but she is not without reservations.
“The opposition is very significant,” added Schual-Berke. “The Washington State Catholic Conference testified against the bill. Evangelicals and other Christian denominations are heard by other members.”
In honor of SOS: State of Stem Cells, Schual-Berke also introduced House Resolution No. 2005-4630, honoring Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America for more than 90 years of service in Washington and around the world.